The Swedish founded multinational conglomerate, IKEA has cooperated with AP Moller Maersk in Spain, achieving to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by shifting the transportation mode from truck to rail between Barcelona port and Tarragona terminal.
The project has launched in September, when the freight routing from Barcelona port Terminal to Valls (Customer Warehouse & Distribution) changed to rail. Instead of trucks, trains are now transporting the goods from the port to the Tarragona Terminal, a distance of 100 km, but the last transport distance, from Tarragona Terminal to IKEA Valls Distribution Centre (30 km), is still done by truck.
The intermodal solution is managed and operated by APM Railways, a subsidiary of AP Moller Maersk.
Provided an annual volume forecasted of 10.000 containers, this shift reduces the IKEA Supply Chain Operations footprint on this transport flow by 75%, according to an announcement. “By shifting the transportation mode from truck to rail between Barcelona port and Tarragona terminal, IKEA Supply Chain Operations is cutting their green house (GHG) from their long-haul transports in Spain by around 700 tons per year,” pointed out Maersk.
“IKEA’s goal is to become climate positive by 2030. For us, in IKEA Supply Chain Operations this translates into reducing the emissions from every transport that we do by an average of -70%. We believe in a diversified portfolio of solutions to decarbonise transportation and there is no silver bullet,” commented Elisabeth Munck af Rosenschöld, Sustainability Manager in IKEA Supply Chain Operations.
This solution for IKEA Supply Chain Operations in Spain has already been replicated in Italy switching approximately 2,000 containers (FFEs) from truck to rail for the transport flow from the APM Terminals terminal in Vado to the IKEA Distribution Centre in Piacenza.
Both IKEA Supply Chain Operations and AP Moller – Maersk said they are committed to the Paris Agreement and to contribute to limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels through their climate ambition and goals.
